This invention relates to a heat-sensible type printer operated by a non-impact means for obtaining hard copies.
The non-impact printer is of a low-noise type, and has advantageous features of recording at high speed and printing letters of any size. In color-recording, non-impact printers, particularly in the heat-sensitive type printers wherein printing is carried out by applying heat, printers using heat-sensitive paper wherein a heat-sensing agent is applied on the base paper are widely used. However, a problem has arisen that when the heat-sensitive paper used in this printer is irradiated by sunlight, etc., the recorded image is faded.
In order to resolve this difficulty, a printer using a heat-sensitive ink sheet has been developed. A heat-sensitive ink sheet is a sheet obtained by overlapping or "sandwiching" a recording paper with a heat-sensitive paper applied with a heat-melting solid ink on one surface thereof in such a manner that the solid ink comes into contact with the recording paper. In this printer, the base paper side of the heat-sensitive ink sheet is heated by a thermal head to melt a portion of the solid ink whereby a heat-transfer recording is effected onto the ordinary recording paper.
However, in the printer of this type, there were disadvantages that it was necessary to peel of the recording paper from the heat-sensitive ink sheet by hand after completion of the recording, and further, if the heat-sensitive ink sheet was left carelessly in a place of high temperature, ink was transferred to the recording paper at a stage prior to the recording.